A Death on Brook Road

There's almost no coverage of Brook Road on this site, not because its out of our normal coverage area, but because nothing ever happens there. Apart from one incident where a manic van driver on a phone forced our reporter to jump off their bike and onto the pavement, nothing.

Which is why its so awful to hear that someone died here: Nick Graydon, age 27, died December 9 2017, after injuries sustained from a collision with a cyclist on Brook Rood who had apparently turned into Brook Road from Lower Cheltenham Road.

It happened at 8pm, which is of course dark.

Articles say "he stepped out from behind a van". Which is something we want to highlight, "stepping out from behind a van" is not exactly uncommon in Montpelier: it is also known as "walking around Montpelier". Because key feaatures of the area are vans, people walking, and pavements narrow to nonexistent. As an example, here's a continuation of the previous video, crossing Monty during the primary school run: count how many times somebody steps out from behind a van.

Like we said, we don't know the details. but "stepped out from behind a van" is one of those statements which pushes the blame onto the deceased, like "the cyclist swerved to avoid..."

Anyway, let's see what happens next after this, a tragic death which shocked everyone nearby.

Disabled Thinking

Historic landscapes and conservation areas are important across the globe. UNESCO knows this, and justly identifies the historic core of Amsterdam as of world importance. Which is why we enjoy going there, taking photos and enjoying the views and the general aesthetic of the place. Even though it's overrun with cars and bicycles.

Clifton Village is not a UNESCO world heritage site, but it is of a similar era, and is also overrun by cars and bicycles.

Which is why Boyce's Avenue has had both banned for much of the day in order to make shopping and walking through there a more pleasant experience.  

Oh? They don't quite look the same? 

That'll be the UK's obsession with paint. These fantastic new yellow daubings on the kerbs of Boyce's Avenue are there for a reason. Which is really important in historic settings.

Pedestrian plays Frogger

We like the site Fight Bad Driving ; it gives us ideas. But where do you see them denounce pedestrians? Never. The AA does, as usual, months behind us, and then only for not paying attention to our midlife-crisis sports cars or our parental-crisis 4x4s. We, are the only site prepared to come out and denounce pedestrians just for being there, in our way, on the pavement, the zebra crossings, and acting like these places belong to them, instead of us, the tax paying motorist.

We are pleased, therefore, to get a new video with commentary from Rhode Long, showing why pedestrians and bicycles together are a danger to our vehicles:


Rhode says:

If pedestrians are going to jump red lights then they should do so when there are not cyclists around. Had this one on Southmead Road been a second earlier it might have resulted in the cycle swerving into the side of my car. Dents from people pull out quite easily but a cycle is full of pointy metal pieces that will cause scratches to the paintwork and necessitate a re-spray. 

We concur. And neither of them would have been insured, would they? Did that pedestrian have a helmet? A license? They shouldn't be allowed out.

Something For The weekend

It's Saturday! Time to forget about the worries of the week and watch some cartoons with the kids! For those of you who can't handle all this loud nonsense the kids consume these days, a bit of vintage entertainment. Amazing how much things have changed over the years.